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All Catholic commentary from June 2018

In my essay “Time to give the lie to a culture in denial?”, I suggested that we need to take seriously that Christianity is publicly revealed by God. Such seriousness is necessary to challenge one of the most deeply cherished and incontrovertibly false assumptions of our contemporary...

In my last post (my dear Theophilus...) the Church was concluding Lent and entering into Holy Week. I mentioned that migraines and eye problems were interfering with computer and writing time. The problems improved in time for my “busy season” at school and the atrium and the extra...

It’s easy to impose our own prejudices in evaluating our relationship with God. When we are asked if we truly have a “personal relationship with Jesus Christ,” the expression suggests an emotional, warm, intimate feeling of the encounter. Of course, as Catholics, we may easily...

The latest letter from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to the German bishops may mark an important shift in the way Pope Francis is handling impediments to the reception of Holy Communion. In broad terms, the same fundamental issue lies at the heart of both the widespread desire to...

Father Michael Pfleger, the firebrand activist, is perhaps Chicago’s leading voice for gun control. Henry Eugene Hale, who has regularly accompanied Father Pfleger to political rallies, is a security guard—although the Chicago archdiocese insists that he is not the priest’s...

The past few weeks have brought several positive signs from Rome:
The Chilean bishops resigned as a group after meeting with Pope Francis, thereby raising hopes that the Holy Father is finally following up strong statements with strong action against bishops who cover up abuse.
In a talk...

If so many different kinds of suffering are the subject of prayer in the Psalms*, it is impossible not to wonder how salvation is perceived by their authors. Is the saving power of the LORD invoked for personal health and prosperity in this life, for the ultimate freedom and peace of the Jewish...

In a Commonweal editorial, urging Pope Francis to “revisit” (that is, scrap) Humanae Vitae, Paul Baumann quotes the same magazine’s words from 1967:
“What matters is choosing that course which best serves the Christian and human good, not that course which promises to enhance or diminish the...

In an address to oil-company executives, Pope Francis said that “the more than one billion people without electricity today need to gain access to it.” It’s hard to disagree with that, right?
Then the Pope continued: “But that energy should also be clean, by a reduction in the systematic use of...

Calling for reconsideration of the appalling legislation that would call upon priests to break the confessional seal, Archbishop Christopher Prowse of Canberra writes: “Priests are bound by a sacred vow to maintain the seal of confession.”
Wait. That’s wrong— perhaps even dangerously wrong.
A...

I’ve written recently about the deliberate exclusion of informed religious faith as an influence in the political and social life of the West (see “Time to give the lie to a culture in denial” and “Dangerous! Both religious exclusion and religious common cause”)....

The Vatican reports that all members of the Council of Cardinals, except for Cardinal Pell, were present at this week’s meeting.
Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz is a member of the Council of Cardinals.
And sure enough Cardinal Errazuriz participated in the meeting, which in turn...

With the Ascension of Christ to heaven—the departure of his identifiable physical presence—and with the descent of the Holy Spirit, Jesus becomes accessible to us only by faith. Through faith, we come to know Jesus in the Word of God. Through faith, we encounter Jesus in the...

In the first three essays in this series, I have been arguing against our modern cultural prejudice that all religions are essentially the same, that they are all merely different forms of a personal and private sentiment. Though it may not always have been obvious, I have been probing the nature...

The history of the Dominican Order in New York is fascinating and uplifting—as recounted by Fr. John Maria Devaney to Thomas V. Mirus in last week’s Catholic Culture Podcast (listen to 150 Years of Holy Preaching). One of several memorable highlights was the service to those suffering...

Two weeks ago it was the first time since February 11 (the Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time) that the priest wore green liturgical vestments on Sunday. After Pentecost, the Church resumed the count of the weeks of Ordinary Time, picking up at the Seventh Week of Ordinary Time, but the first two...

At least fifteen years ago, I wrote a confidential email message to a few trusted friends, telling them to brace themselves. Within a few days, I said, a major secular newspaper would break a sensational story about Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. To my surprise, the newspaper never ran the...

Speaking about the dubia in his latest interview, Pope Francis told the Reuters news service that he learned about the four cardinals’ questions “from the newspapers.”
When they released the dubia to the public, in November 2016, the four cardinals reported that they had

It is already happening, and it gives us a bad name. Hearing of the widespread denunciation among our bishops of President Trump’s (now discarded) policy to separate children from their migrant parents at the Mexican border, a certain number of Catholics who read CatholicCulture.org are...

Now that President Trump has signed an executive order ending the separation of families by immigration agents, I hope that one of the most appalling political arguments in recent American history will come to an end. But I doubt it. I suspect the argument will continue, because both sides are...

As he revealed that he had been accused of sexual abuse, Cardinal McCarrick made an interesting protestation of innocence: “While I have absolutely no recollection of this reported abuse…”
The accusation, which a review board found credible, occurred almost fifty years ago,...

One year ago today, the Vatican’s auditor general abruptly resigned. The Vatican gave no explanation for his departure, but said that a replacement would be found “as soon as possible.”
He still hasn’t been replaced. His departure still hasn’t been...

Now at last the truth about Cardinal McCarrick’s misconduct has become public knowledge. If my email traffic is any indication, many more stories will soon emerge. But Rod Dreher drives right to the central point in his follow-up column, entitled “Cardinal McCarrick: Everybody...

In a wide-ranging interview, Reuters reports, Pope Francis “was concerned that ‘there is no transparency’ in the Vatican’s real-estate holdings...”
The Vatican’s real-estate holdings are managed by APSA: the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic...

What word would you use to describe boys between the ages of 14 and 17? Ordinarily I’d call them teenagers. Wouldn’t you?
When the Vatican announced the conviction of Msgr. Carlo Capella, the term used was “children.” The former Vatican diplomat was found guilty of...

It is time, in this series on the books of the Bible, to take a quick look at Proverbs. I also did this back in early 2016, but the purpose then was simply to pluck some of the proverbs that had particularly struck me during my reading in January of that year (see A few pointed remarks (from...

This post is from the archives. It was originally published June 29, 2016:
June 29 is the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul. This is a holyday of obligation in most countries (but not in the United States).
This is major holiday in Rome, with schools, shops and banks closed. The day is...

It’s happening again.
At the little chapel in the abbey where we go every day, it’s become difficult for late arrivals to find an empty pew at the early-morning Mass.
You understand, I’m not saying that the chapel is completely full. The pews fit four adults comfortably,...

John Allen of Crux writes that the appointment of Bishop Nunzio Galantino as new head of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA) is “the most reassuring and also the riskiest move we’ve seen from the pontiff in some time.” I agree with 50% of that assessment. The move is...

Was anyone else a little surprised by the celebration of the Solemnity of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist this past Sunday? After I mentioned how there will be six months of monotonous green Sundays, the very next Sunday was a solemnity. After Mass,...

Two new episodes in the festering sex-abuse scandal have called attention to a facet of the problem that has long been understood (at least by some analysts), but routinely neglected if not actively suppressed: the connection between sexual abuse of young people and a widespread homosexual culture...

The story we picked up from OnePeterFive on the new German “guidelines” for intercommunion reads like a parody. Frankly, I’m wondering if it is.
If you click through our summary to the story on which it is based, you’ll see what seems to be a very dodgy effort by the...

This Saturday, June 30, is the Optional Memorial of the First Martyrs of the Church of Rome. This is a relatively newer feast, created in the 1969 reform of the General Roman Calendar. Vatican II called for a reform of the General Calendar;

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